Killing Ground

Saw this recently on a pirated DVD. It is about a couple who retreat to the woods on a romantic camping trip. Things don't go well....... Nowhere close to Eden lake, Preservation or Storm warning. These names should be suffice to explain in short what this movie is about. In Eden lake, the tension, violence n the ending was shocking. While in Storm warning, the gore n the killings were brutal. Preservation was decent but Killing ground failed to impress. Well, it wasn't boring or messed up but at times i found it hard to sit through certain scenes. Two things i cannot bear even on screen is rape n any harm towards kids. Thankfully the director avoided abusive scenes but even some off screen scenes were a bit too hard for me. The character development of the bad guys were done well. They are given nearly as much screen time as the main leads. The bearded villain looked like Mel Gibson from Blood father. The movies non linear approach to story telling might appeal to some viewers but there isn't any originality in it.

Aaron Pederson came off Mystery Road and Goldstone for....this? He should be hitting Hollywood with his talent, but instead he'll settle for a script with little originality or imagination, and fellow great actors wasting their talents. Harriet Dyer is a terrific performer and has shown her charisma on the shows No Activity and The Other Guy, but is only required to be frightened wife captured by a maniac here, big boost into cinema that one is. Aaron Glenane is a convincing psychopath, but his and Pederson's characters are given no motivation or explanation for killing, they just do it for a laugh it seems. The only praise this deserves is for its beautiful cinematography, given the proper cinematic look with a proper film camera and lenses, rather than the grainy fly on the wall style that outstayed its welcome years back. Shows off the amazing countryside but then again does little with it but put in a hackneyed story and boring characters. Another miss for Aussie film. Except for people who love watching people get shot in the head.

When you watch a large variety of movies something you come to notice is that every different country makes films very uniquely. I've come to find that I quite like Australia's way of story telling. Their characteristics are likable and realistic characters, they're not afraid of extreme violence and they like to have a little bit of a psychological edge to their story. All three of those traits are apparent in 'Killing Ground' which turned out to be a surprisingly enjoyable experience.

I didn't go into the film with a lot of hope, simply because it looked low-budget and I am finder it harder and harder to come across good quality, low-budget films. It really pleasantly surprised me however. It gets off to a very patient and slow start with almost no action taking place for at least the first 30 minutes. Usually this would be an absolute killer for any horror/thriller movie, but on this occasion the characters were strong enough that I could enjoy that period of the film regardless.

I like a film that isn't afraid to be bold and this is certainly one of those. It's a film that doesn't want to be forgotten about any time soon. It wants to stick with you for a while to come. Not simply by having some pretty explicit violence at times, but more so by the psychological twist that is created near the end. The whole film is quite masterfully put together. One not to be missed.

From what I've noticed, horror has been divided in too many subcategories. We have gore, torture porn, dark thrillers and so on. The French do most of the gore as clearly they missed the mark for a true scary story. Of course there are some better examples like Haute Tension or Martyrs for some, but they still include a lot of blood and violence. Spain makes brilliant thrillers, just lovely, superb stories that rarely manage to scare but intrigue more than anything.

An Aussie horror is mainly represented by some lost campers somewhere that are about to be tortured by some crazy hillbillies. I've seen this story so many times, that it turned into nothing short but boredom for me. I won't say Killing Ground is a bad movie, far from it, but it has been made a lot of times before. Storm Warning, Wolf Creek, Timber Falls, Eden Lake, Turistas and so many that turned the formula into a cliché by now. It's like seeing another zombie movie, you know what you are about to watch and expect right?

So if you want to watch another add-on of this type, go ahead, it will deliver perhaps slightly better. I'm ready for something different tho.

Cheers!

Young couple goes on a trip to an isolated beach and discover that they are not alone. Someone else had put up a tent there and then abandoned it. As time passes by and the owners of the tent do not return, the newcomers start to suspect the worse. Then all hell breaks loose…

If you are a horror fan like myself you'd know the premise of KILLING GROUND. It all had been done before. What makes this movie stand out is its extreme realism and "no holds barred" attitude. It is at times a hard, edge of the seat viewing, but a rewarding one in the end. KILLING GROUND shows how good a survival movie could be if it is well scripted, acted and doesn't try to cash in on cheap tricks.

The story moves back and forwards, explaining bit by bit what happened to the first family and adding a sense of danger to the present. The villains are despicable, but down to earth real, which makes them even more terrifying. The performance of Aaron Glenane is particularly good. He gives us a small town psychopath, for whom murder is nothing but a daily routine.

The film does not shy away from gore moments, but does not glorify them. The pictures our mind can draw are much scarier than what's on screen, and it's what makes KILLING GROUND tick.

With all its tension KILLING GROUND is a pretty much conventional survival horror film, but there are so few good ones are out there. You may complain about its "unoriginality" but it is a horror movie you won't soon forget.

QUICK FACTS

During Q&A director Damien Power said that the inspiration for the film came to him as an image of an abandoned tent and a thought – what the worst could have happened with its owners?

While shooting a film, Damien Power wanted a viewer to feel that "the rule book of horror was thrown out of the window" and that "no one is safe".

KILLING GROUND will go on general release in 2017.

(Please read my blog here:http://pashasfilms.blogspot.com.au)